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Most certainly not. It is a fully valid and legal sale, and would be upheld by any Jewish or (lehavdil) non-Jewish court.
–
AlexApr 1 '11 at 20:18

Please post your opinions (with sources) as answers. That's why I posted this question. I was hoping for this type of debate. Let's hash it all out.
–
Seth JApr 1 '11 at 20:33

Alex its legality is not questioned nor its legitimacy its just called what it is called
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SimchasTorahApr 1 '11 at 21:30

1

I'm applying a historical lock to this question. The OP (or anybody else) is welcome to ask the "what are the reasons/arguments for/against?" question separately from this survey. Such a question should not be closed as a duplicate of this one, though some answers here may also apply there. EDIT: The better version has now been asked here: judaism.stackexchange.com/q/26797/759
–
Monica Cellio♦Mar 4 '13 at 17:45

One who thinks that the sale of
chametz need be valid only on a
Rabbinical level, based on the custom
that everyone nullifies their chametz
by saying "All leaven... shall be
nullified and ownerless..." - is
making a mistake. For chametz that is
sold is not included in the
nullification and the declaration of
ownerlessness, since he intends to
re-acquire it after Pesach, as
explained in the Rashba's responsum
citing Yerushalmi; Rema in Darchei
Moshe, and Pri Chadash, rule
similarly. Thus, if the sale is not
legally binding, one would transgress
the mitzvos of "no chametz shall be
seen" and "no chametz shall be found";
one must therefore be careful about
this.

...

The critical point is that the Jew who
owns the chametz has to truly agree
that if the non-Jew wishes, he can
[re-]sell all of the chametz at a fair
market value such as he might receive
in this town. Then, since he [the
non-Jewish buyer] knows with
certainty, about this transaction,
that he will be able to get [fair
value for the goods] from someone else
in town who will be willing to buy it,
then a price has been set. This is
similar to one who says, ["I will buy
this] at the price estimated by a
panel of three" - or even "by one
[expert]" - see Beis Yosef, Choshen
Mishpat, end of sec. 206. [And the sale is therefore valid on that basis.] It is true
that [the Jew] knows that [the
non-Jew] will not do so [find another
buyer to whom to resell the chametz,
but will sell it back to him. But this
doesn't matter;] since the fact that
he doesn't do so is out of his good
will, that he voluntarily wants to
give it back to the Jew - it is
considered a fully valid sale, as
stated explicitly in the Gemara, fifth
chapter of Bava Metzia, "that [the
buyer] says, 'It is up to me [whether
to return the goods].'"

Based on all of this, he goes on to explain how the sale should be executed in a way that is valid both halachically and (lehavdil) according to secular law.

The sale of chametz is based off a tosefta where it is clearly a real sale. The fact that the Jew buys it back afterwards doesn't cancel the sale. It became common in Europe for Jews in the whiskey business to sell their chametz before pesach and buy it back after pesach. It was clearly a full sale though, since often the gentile would drink some of it on pesach. One can sell his chametz as long as it is clearly a real sale. The gentile should know what he is buying, agree on a fair price, and be able to eat some of it if he wants to. If the whole sale is just done as ritual thing without actual intent by either party in the acquisition, then it will not work, and one may end up owning chametz over pesach.

I have heard, and perhaps someone can find a source, that selling chametz is a kiyum of biur chametz.

Personally, about a month before pesach, we start living on leftover chametz and purim candy. By the time erev pesach rolls around our chametz is minimal, especially since almost all grain byproducts are made from corn because of allergies to gluten. So we just burn it or dump it- though we don't have liquor in the house.

We do make a sale for the possibility of chametz in toiletries, etc. which are not worth the hassle of investigating and the "just in case we missed something" factor.